Woman suffers burns while walking off-trail in thermal area by Yellowstone’s Old Faithful
George Rose/Getty Images
(CODY, Wyo.) — A 60-year-old woman was walking off-trail in Yellowstone National Park when she suffered burns from scalding water in a thermal area by Old Faithful, park officials said.
The woman was walking with her husband and their dog in a thermal area near Mallard Lake Trailhead on Monday afternoon “when she broke through a thin crust” over the extremely hot water, suffering second-degree and third-degree burns to her leg, the National Park Service said.
The woman, who was visiting Yellowstone from New Hampshire, was taken to a park medical clinic and later flown to a hospital for further treatment, officials said.
Her husband and dog were not hurt, park officials said.
“Visitors are reminded to stay on boardwalks and trails in hydrothermal areas and exercise extreme caution,” Yellowstone National Park said in a statement. “The ground in these areas is fragile and thin, and there is scalding water just below the surface.”
Park spokesperson Linda Veress urges visitors to “follow the beaten path.”
“In thermal areas, boardwalks take you to amazing places, protect the park, and keep you safe,” Veress told ABC News. “People have been severely burned and killed after leaving the boardwalk or reaching into hot water.”
Pets aren’t allowed on boardwalks or hiking trails, or in thermal areas, park officials noted.
The incident is under investigation, park officials said.
(LOS ANGELES) — Firefighters are nearing victory in the battles against three major wildfires near Los Angeles that have burned more than 117,000 acres, destroyed nearly 200 structures and injured 23 people, officials said.
More than 8,000 firefighters combating the Bridge, Line and Airport fires, all burning within 70 miles of each other, have significantly increased containment lines around the blazes while taking advantage of cooler weather in Southern California over the past week, officials said.
The biggest fire, the Bridge Fire, had charred 54,795 acres as of Wednesday after igniting Sept. 8 in the Angeles National Forest, 31 miles east of downtown Los Angeles, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire). The blaze was 37% contained on Wednesday, Cal Fire said.
“Conditions were calm last night as firefighters continued their diligent work in strengthening containment lines and validating their progress,” Cal Fire said in an updated statement on the Bridge Fire Wednesday, adding that firefighting helicopters were not needed overnight.
The Bridge Fire in Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties has destroyed 75 structures, including at least 33 homes in Wrightwood and Mt. Baldy, and injured four people, officials said.
The cause of the blaze remains under investigation.
The Line Fire
Firefighters upped containment on the Line Fire in San Bernardino County to 50% on Wednesday, keeping it to “minimal fire growth overnight,” according to Cal Fire. Like the other active blazes in the Los Angeles area, the Line Fire has been fueled by extremely dry vegetation, officials said.
Since it was ignited by a suspected arsonist on Sept. 5, the Line Fire has burned 39,181 acres, according to Cal Fiire. The blaze has damaged four structures, destroyed one and injured four people, including three firefighters, authorities said.
“Firefighters are strengthening control lines and mopping up hot spots,” Cal Fire said.
The fire prompted California Gov. Gavin Newsom to deploy the state National Guard to support the ongoing response.
Newsom declared a state of emergency on Sept. 11 to free up resources in an effort to bring the three fires under control.
Justin Wayne Halstenberg, a 34-year-old man from Norco, California, was identified as the suspect who started the Line Fire, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement. During a video arraignment on Tuesday, Halstenberg pleaded not guilty to 11 counts of arson, including aggravated arson and causing great bodily injury.
The Airport Fire
The Airport Fire — which broke out on Sept. 9 in an unincorporated area of Orange County and spread to Riverside County — had burned 23,519 acres as of Wednesday, according to Cal Fire. The blaze is 35% contained.
“Firefighters are prioritizing continued fire line construction and reinforcement by adding more layers of protection in problem areas,” Cal Fire said in a fire update.
The fire has been the most destructive of the three blazes, destroying 160 structures, including homes and businesses, and damaging 34 others, according to Cal Fire. At least 15 people, including two firefighters, were injured, Cal Fire said.
The Airport Fire was sparked by county public works crews working on a fire prevention project by trying to move boulders to prevent public access — mostly by motorcyclists — to an area of the canyon with a lot of dry vegetation that could ignite easily, officials told ABC Los Angeles station KABC.
According to the National Interagency Fire Center, more than 24,000 firefighters were battling 55 large active wildfires across the nation on Wednesday.
So far in 2024, 37,269 wildfires have erupted across the country, burning more than 7.3 million acres, up from 2.1 million acres at this time last year, according to the fire center.
In this July 10, 2023, file photo, a resident of the neighborhood takes a picture of a house with extensive damage along Peartree Ln in a gated community of Rolling Hills Estates, Calif., the morning after several houses began sliding down a canyon. (Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images, FILE)
(NEW YORK) — As the embattled cliffside city of Rancho Palos Verdes continues to face indefinite utility shutoffs due to landslide risk, a neighboring Southern California community has lost gas services this week.
Officials from Rolling Hills, an adjacent city on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, announced that SoCal Gas shut off services to 34 homes in the area on Monday.
Additionally, electricity company Southern California Edison announced 51 households are preparing to lose power indefinitely no later than Wednesday evening, according to a statement from Rolling Hills officials.
This means services could be shut off any time before Wednesday at 6:00 p.m. PT, according to officials who note the utility companies are responsible for notifying customers of their service status.
Mayor Leah Mirsch released a statement Monday, saying, “The safety and well-being of our residents remains the City’s top priority.”
“We are all impacted by the outages and are committed to holding the utility companies accountable – pushing them to implement solutions that will restore services both quickly and safely,” Mirsch added.
Earlier this month, California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in the Portuguese Bend area of Rancho Palos Verdes as SoCal Gas and Southern California Edison shut off services to nearly 250 residences due to broken pipes and power lines causing hazards.
Residents in the growing landslide zone, which officials said earlier this month had spread about 680 acres over the past year, were advised to leave the area following the loss of vital power.
Photos show foundational damage to multi-million dollar properties and the surrounding roadways have become a reality amid the increasingly shifting landscape.
Newsom said land movement in the area has “significantly accelerated following severe storms in 2023 and 2024.”
Larry Chung, vice president of electric utility company Southern California Edison (SCE), said during a community meeting this month that there’s “no timeframe” for power restoration in the impacted areas due to the instability of the land.
“We can not predict how much the slide will accelerate in the coming weeks and months,” Chung said.
The Rancho Pales Verdes Peninsula is located about 30 miles south of Los Angeles.
“There is no playbook for an emergency like this one,” Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn, who represents the area, said at a news conference on Sept. 1. “We’re sparing no expense. This is bigger than Rancho Palos Verdes. This land movement is so gigantic and so damaging that one city should not have to bear the burden alone.”
Hahn said at the time the county committed $5 million to respond to the disaster.
It has not been announced if L.A. County’s funding and Newsom’s executive order will extend to the Rolling Hills community.
Charlie Raine, a Rolling Hills resident, told ABC News affiliate KABC-TV he’s worried about his elderly neighbors in the wake of the shutoffs.
“There’s a lot of people that are dealing with this, and it’s overwhelming for them,” he told the outlet. “I’m somewhat capable of doing this for myself, certainly, and I feel sort of obligated to help other people try and get through this.”
Rolling Hills officials said the Rotary Club of Palos Verdes Peninsula is organizing donation efforts for residents who have been affected by the landslide.
Generator and solar installation permits are being expedited to support alternative power solutions, according to officials.
(WASHINGTON) — Claiming superior leadership and casting himself as the true agent of change were keys to Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election, per ABC News exit poll results.
He also prevailed by a wide margin among the small group of so-called “double haters” — voters with an unfavorable opinion of both candidates.
In a list of four candidate qualities, 30% of voters nationally rated “has the ability to lead” as most important to their vote, and about as many, 28%, chose “can bring needed change.” Fewer picked “has good judgment” (20%) or “cares about people like me” (18%).
These choices were closely tied to candidate preferences. Among those who cited leadership ability as the top candidate attribute, Trump beat Kamala Harris by 2-1, 66-33%. On bringing about change, the gap widened to 3-1, 74-24%.
That huge gap on change reflects Harris’ difficulties distancing herself from the unpopular Biden administration, a dynamic covered in ABC News/Ipsos pre-election polling. Seventy-four percent of Americans said they wanted Harris, if elected, to take a new direction from President Joe Biden’s. Only 33% thought she would.
Harris pushed back with big leads among voters who picked judgment or empathy as most important — but there were fewer of them.
Taken another way, among Trump supporters, 41% chose “can bring needed change” as the most important candidate attribute in their vote and 40% chose leadership, totaling to eight in 10 of all his voters.
By contrast, about six in 10 Harris supporters chose judgment or caring as top qualities to them. Compared with Trump, half as many cited leadership and a third as many picked the ability to bring change.
Personal favorability was another factor.
In 2020, Biden was seen favorably by 52%, 6 percentage points above Trump’s 46%. This year, Harris ended up rated essentially as unfavorably as Trump — 47-52%, favorable-unfavorable, for Harris, and 46-53% for Trump. (This is a change from preliminary exit poll results, in which Trump was 11 points underwater in favorability, Harris just 2 points.)
Notably, Trump won the 8% of voters who rated both candidates unfavorably, by 26 points, 56-30%.
Look also at assessments of how extreme the candidates’ views were: 47% said Harris’ views were too extreme; 54% said that of Trump. But among those who said both were too extreme, again 8% of voters, Trump won by a broad 42 points, 63-21%.
